I don't mind Ben Folds as an artist. I find what he does on his own of passing interest, and occasionally very good. The thing about Ben Folds is he's an incredibly gifted collaborator. I don't know why, but he always seems to do much better when he works with other people. And his list of colaborations is growing longer and more distinguished. He's worked with Amanda Palmer, William Shatner, Ben Lee, Ben Kweller, and of course the other two thirds of the numerically misnamed Ben Folds Five. My theory is that when he's working with somebody else he really wants to show them his best, but when he's only working for himself he's less driven. Whatever the reason Folds definitely plays well with others.
Nick Hornby is one of my favourite authors. I've read all his novels and several of his short stories. I like the way he writes characters and dialogue, and really think he's one of the best contemporary voices in literature. But what convinces an author he can write songs? I think the seed was first planted when Hornby's High Fidelity was turned into an off broadway musical. The show was not a success, but some of the songs took passages straight from Hornby's text, which would certainly have piqued the interest of the music fan in Hornby.
Lonely Avenue isn't the first time Folds and Hornby have worked together. Hornby penned a track on William Shatner's Has Been album. Something about working together must have appealed to the pair though because on the strength of that song they decided to create an album together.
No offence to Folds, but by far the best thing about Lonely Avenue is Hornby. His gifts as an author translate remarkably well to the medium, and because writing is what he does we're not subjected to the "baby, baby, baby, oh" crap that so many pop songs are reduced to. What we have instead is a collection of eleven short stories. They're funny, they're touching, they're full of quirky characters (both real and imagined) and they feel real. Some are biographical, some are purely fictional, and at least one is touchingly autobiographical.
The wonderful thing is that Folds rises to the challenge of the words, and has written some of the best music of his career. He turns the short stories into ballads, rock songs, classic pop. He really shows the diversity of his craft, and not once do you question where he's going with a song. Musically he knows as many tricks as Hornby does textually, and he pulls them all out.
The more I listen to this album, the harder it is to pick a favourite. The album has made me cry and laugh, and as much as I love music it's rare for either of those things to happen. If you like pop music then this album should certainly be in your collection. I just hope it's successful enough that they decide to make another one.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
If you were to ask me if I liked Kanye West I'd probably tell you no. I think his ego is overinflated. I think he has absolutely no filter in terms of what he's willing to say. I think his level of media exposure is much too high for what he does. If you've been lucky enough to read his blog, follow his twitter feed, or view his antics (either at award shows, or on live telethons) then you'd be hard pressed not to agree with me.
So given my, now very public, opinion of "Yeezy" why am I choosing his album as my first review? I'm glad you asked. The thing is that Richard Kingsmill named My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as his top album of 2010. Kingsmill usually has pretty good taste in these things, so I had to know what made this album better in his eyes than all of my favourite albums from last year.
Full disclosure: This isn't even the first Kanye album I've bought. I also obtained 808s and Heartbreak largely on the strength of Love Lockdown, which I still think is a great song. I also thought Gold Digger was a killer track, but it didn't tempt me to buy the album.
So you're wondering what I thought of MBDTF?
It's really good. Yes it's a modern hip-hop album, but I'm quite fond of good hip-hop, and it seems that in his music (perhaps the one arena where it's unwarranted) Kanye is capable of modesty and self deprecation. Everything on this album comes together. The hooks, the guests, the constant pop culture references and product placement. Everything glistens with some absolutely phenomenal production.
To accompany the release of the album Kanye made a half hour long video to accompany the track Runaway which was the lead single and is the album's centre of gravity. The video featured snippets of all the tracks on the album, but I tried to watch it and I found it to be unwatchable self indulgent tripe.
Listening to the album is like having a deep conversation. You really feel like you get to see deep into the true self of Kanye West, but when he knows he's being watched and he plays up to the audience, and that's when the douchebag Kanye comes out to play. There's still masses of ego on the record, some of the tracks practically ooze with it. But they're tempered and balanced by the tracks where he seems a little more broken and human.
Kanye knows his away around a hook, and after a couple of listens I often found myself humming a line or repeating a line. Even when he uses other songs that I know and love he manages to make the music sound like it was always meant to be used like that.
Do I think it's the best album of 2010? Not even close, but I still think it's a hell of an accomplishment, and I'll certainly keep listening to it. Would I recommend it? Not to everyone, but if you think you might like it, then you probably will.
So given my, now very public, opinion of "Yeezy" why am I choosing his album as my first review? I'm glad you asked. The thing is that Richard Kingsmill named My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as his top album of 2010. Kingsmill usually has pretty good taste in these things, so I had to know what made this album better in his eyes than all of my favourite albums from last year.
Full disclosure: This isn't even the first Kanye album I've bought. I also obtained 808s and Heartbreak largely on the strength of Love Lockdown, which I still think is a great song. I also thought Gold Digger was a killer track, but it didn't tempt me to buy the album.
So you're wondering what I thought of MBDTF?
It's really good. Yes it's a modern hip-hop album, but I'm quite fond of good hip-hop, and it seems that in his music (perhaps the one arena where it's unwarranted) Kanye is capable of modesty and self deprecation. Everything on this album comes together. The hooks, the guests, the constant pop culture references and product placement. Everything glistens with some absolutely phenomenal production.
To accompany the release of the album Kanye made a half hour long video to accompany the track Runaway which was the lead single and is the album's centre of gravity. The video featured snippets of all the tracks on the album, but I tried to watch it and I found it to be unwatchable self indulgent tripe.
Listening to the album is like having a deep conversation. You really feel like you get to see deep into the true self of Kanye West, but when he knows he's being watched and he plays up to the audience, and that's when the douchebag Kanye comes out to play. There's still masses of ego on the record, some of the tracks practically ooze with it. But they're tempered and balanced by the tracks where he seems a little more broken and human.
Kanye knows his away around a hook, and after a couple of listens I often found myself humming a line or repeating a line. Even when he uses other songs that I know and love he manages to make the music sound like it was always meant to be used like that.
Do I think it's the best album of 2010? Not even close, but I still think it's a hell of an accomplishment, and I'll certainly keep listening to it. Would I recommend it? Not to everyone, but if you think you might like it, then you probably will.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)